Comparing Soybean Meal and Estruded-Expelled Soybean Meal for Nursery Pigs

Researchers at Kansas State University compared the performance of nursery pigs fed extruded-expelled soybean meals from three commercial manufacturers to conventionally processed soybean meal. Pigs 42 days of age and weighing 22 pounds were allocated to five treatments. The treatments were a negative control containing conventionally processed soybean meal formulated to 1.10% total lysine and 1.48 Mcal of metabolize energy (ME) per pound, three diets containing commercially processed extruded-expelled soybean meal and a positive control containing conventionally processed soybean meal plus 3.29% soybean oil formulated to the same lysine and metabolizable energy levels as contained in the extruded-expelled diets. Results indicated no differences between average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed per gain was seen between the three commercially extruded-expelled meals and the conventional soybean meal supplemented with added fat. The pigs fed the negative control diet containing only soybean meal had higher average daily feed intake and feed per gain compared to the other treatments. This study confirms previous studies that showed extruded-expelled soybean meal can replace conventionally processed soybean meals in diets for young pigs. The take-home message is that nutrient composition, economics and availability of the meals will determine soybean meal use.

Woodworth, J.C. and co-workers. 2000. Influence of dry, extruded-expelled soybean meal from different manufacturers on growth performance of nursery pigs. Kansas State University Swine Day Proceedings. P48-50.